Did you know that there are 20 million workers throughout the U.S. food system who harvest, process, ship, sell, cook and serve the food we eat? And guess where more than 50% of them work? In restaurants in the lowest-paying jobs in the United States.

They include our neighbors and friends: immigrants, women and mothers raising children in poverty. Many earn between $2 and $5 per hour in 43 out of 50 states in the United States, and their wages are so low they go wholly to paying taxes, forcing millions of women to live entirely off their tips.

Can you imagine earning below minimum wage, and having to depend on tips to get by?

Photo: Myrna Prentice of the Rocky Mountain Conference works her way through "The Field," a display that explores social issues related to agriculture, during the United Methodist Women's Assembly at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville, Ky. Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.